An operating system may be customized for a specific computing device such that less than the entire operating system is installed on the device. The installed operating system includes a core operating system and at least one operating system component that is deployed to the device with the core operating system. Once the customized operating system is installed on the computing device, additional operating system components cannot be deployed to reconfigure the device. The device can only be reconfigured by removing the previously installed operating system and installing a different operating system that is customized for a different purpose.